The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to management of handovers in a self organizing network (SON).
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services, make use of new spectrum, and better integrate with other open standards using OFDMA on the downlink (DL), SC-FDMA on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in LTE technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
To supplement conventional base stations, additional base stations can be deployed to provide robust wireless coverage to mobile devices. For example, wireless relay stations and low power base stations (e.g., which can be commonly referred to as Home NodeBs or Home eNBs, collectively referred to as H(e)NBs, femto nodes, small cells, pico nodes, etc.) can be deployed for incremental capacity growth, enhanced user experience, in-building or other specific geographic coverage, and/or the like. Such low power base stations can be connected to the Internet via broadband connection (e.g., digital subscriber line (DSL) router, cable or other modem, etc.), which can provide the backhaul link to the mobile operator's network. Thus, for example, the low power base stations can be deployed in user homes to provide mobile network access to one or more devices via the broadband connection. Because deployment of such base stations is unplanned, low power base stations can interfere with one another where multiple stations are deployed within a close vicinity of one another.
In a small cell self organizing network (SON), a small cell has a limited (e.g., nodal) view of the network. For example, a small cell is aware of handover signaling data (or amount of handover signaling data) that is generated at the small cell and transmitted to a network entity (e.g., Mobility Management Entity (MME), SON management server, Operations, Administration, and Management (OAM) server, Home NodeB Management System (HMS), Home eNodeB Management System (HeMS), etc.). However, the small cell may not be aware of the handover signaling data generated by other small cells in the SON and transmitted to the network entity. Therefore, the small cell lacks visibility to handover signaling load of the network at a given point in time, and may not be able to efficiently manage performance of the SON.